Storey and Hackett combine for Phillip Island pole

Dominic Storey and Peter Hackett have claimed a maiden pole position ahead of tomorrow’s Australian Endurance Championship opener at Phillip Island.

The two Autex Mercedes-AMG GT3 pilots set the fastest combined time in today’s two 20-minute qualifying sessions, which will see them start tomorrow’s 500km encounter from top spot.

“That was the fastest time I’ve done around Phillip Island,” said Storey.

“There was a little bit left in it, but we opted to pit halfway through the session and call it.

“I knew Pete would do a fantastic job, so I left it up to him to try and snag the pole.”

“It’s incredible close,” added Hackett.

“There’s four different manufacturers in the top four places within five tenths.

“It was literally down to who put it a little bit more on the line today.”

Pushing the Mercedes duo hard was the Mega Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R driven by Liam Talbot and John Martin, the two leading contenders split but just 0.2s on the grid.

Martin set a strong time in his session to leave the car inside the top ten, before Talbot put the #911 car second fastest in his 20-minute hit out.

Third place went to Garth Tander and Geoff Emery in the Valvoline Jamec Pem Racing Audi R8 LMS, their time 0.1s off that of the Martin/Talbot combination and just 0.04s ahead of Roger Lago and David Russell in the JBS Australia Lamborghini.

Russell set the fastest time of anybody in his qualifying session, lapping the Phillip Island circuit in 1:26.950 to hold out Greame Smyth in Qualifying 1.

Smyth and Edwards combined for the tenth best time in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3, the second turbo-charged car on the grid.

James Bergmuller and Steve Richards in the BMW M6 GT3 claimed that honour, the BMW Team SRM entry the eighth fastest around the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit.

Max Twigg and Tony D’Alberto in fifth place headed a tightly packed group of five cars split by little more than half a second.